"The explosion and hours-long fire at Chevron's refinery Thursday night in El Segundo deeply unnerved communities in the South Bay. The blast sent shock waves throughout the refinery grounds, allegedly injuring at least one worker, and jolting residents as far as a mile away. A 100-foot-tall pillar of fire cast an orange glow over the night sky. And towering plumes of smoke and acrid odors drifted eastward with the onshore winds."
"Most staff at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the federal agency tasked with investigating workplace safety, is not working because of the ongoing federal shutdown. The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Mitigation Board, which determines root causes from dangerous chemical releases, is also furloughed and could lose its funding because of proposed budget cuts by the Trump administration."
""The Trump administration has defunded the Chemical Safety board, and the federal government is shut down right now," said Joe Lyou, a resident of nearby Hawthorne and president of the Coalition for Clean Air, a statewide nonprofit."
""So there is a very good possibility we are never going to know what really caused this, because the experts in figuring this stuff out are no longer there to do that.""
An explosion and hours-long fire at Chevron's El Segundo refinery shocked South Bay communities, allegedly injuring at least one worker and producing a 100-foot pillar of fire, smoke, and acrid odors drifting east. Residents felt shock waves and impacts up to a mile away. Local regulators are investigating while many federal safety personnel at OSHA and the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Mitigation Board are furloughed because of a federal shutdown and proposed budget cuts. Environmental advocates warn that absent federal expertise, root causes may remain unknown. Labor unions fear similar disasters could threaten thousands of refinery workers statewide.
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